Wayland Flowers and Madame
Wayland Flowers was best known for the comedy act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madame" were a major national success on stage and on screen in the 1970s and 1980s.
Madame's many TV appearances included Laugh-In; a long run on the game show Hollywood Squares (replacing Paul Lynde in The Center Square); a recurring comedy skit on Solid Gold. During his stint on Solid Gold, Flowers was diagnosed with HIV and eventually developed Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer. Despite his illness, Flowers continued to perform. On September 2, 1988, he collapsed onstage while performing at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. After a brief hospitalization, he visited his family in Dawson, Georgia, before returning to his home in Los Angeles. He then began hospice care at Hughes House. Flowers died there on October 11,1988 at the age of 48.